The overall purpose of this application is to create a Center for Advanced Study of Informatics in Public Health (CASIPH) at the University of Pittsburgh to bring together a diverse group of investigators to carry out research focusing on improving the nation's ability to detect and characterize cases of disease and outbreaks of disease as quickly as possible. To realize a vision of a state-of-the-art surveillance system, translated into public health practice to create a state-of-the-art surveillance unit, CASIPH will conduct two research projects and supporting Core activities. The research projects will develop a Bayesian case detection system and a Bayesian outbreak detection system that will be closely integrated. The supportive core activities will provide evaluation, software engineering, and translation-to-practice services.